Android Market

Just like Apple has its iPhone Store for downloading thousands of applications and great games among other things, Google has launched its own Android Market for distributing and downloading applications for mobiles that run on its Android OS. However there are some basic differences between the iPhone Store and the Android Market. While Apple requires every developer to first register themselves and submit their iPhone applications for review before they can be listed on the iPhone Store, the Android Developer Market has a simple three step process for listing and distributing custom built Android apps.

The first step towards listing your Android app on the online Android User Market is to register yourself as an Android Developer by paying a one-time application fee of $25, following which, your applications can be listed on the Android market without any further validation or approval. Once your application has been listed in the Android Application Market it will be available for free or paid distribution, determined by you.

You get 70% of revenue generated from each Android app purchase while the rest goes to the carriers and billing settlement fees. In all of this Google takes nothing, you see their real revenue would come when they are able to capture the thriving mobile OS advertising industry, just like they have in the computer world. There are hundreds of interesting apps already on the Android Market and their numbers are only bound to increase as more Android-powered phone are launched by different handset makers.

Google has also promised to bring newer and handier Android development tools to its marketplace in the near future thus delighting the Android development community. The Android Market also features a rating and feedback system similar to that on YouTube. If developers need to simulate their Android app before uploading it on the Android Market there is the G1 Simulator available for all your testing needs and purposes.

Although the Google Android Market is a good way to earn money for Android Application Developers but you need to beware of a few follies. If you try to list an app demo for free download on the Android Market and link the full purchase to your own site then you are violating the terms of agreement you entered into with Google (but never bothered to read). Sooner than later some one will report this forbidden practice and you could be barred from the Android Developers Market for a long long time, probably forever.

This inevitably boils down to the Apple vs Google issue. Although both of them are united against Microsoft's hegemony but when it comes to Mobile OS platforms they seem to be on a collision course. Although the iPhone Developer Program has already become a runaway success, the Android Development Program also holds big promise because it is free wheeling and Android mobile platform is not meant for a specific phone but any phone company that wishes to use it.